Where are for sale items actually located?

[daveprice]

So I purchase an item that is listed as located here in Australia. A few days later the seller marks the item as sent and provides tracking details. A few more days later, in the tracking details, the item is still listed as being prepared. Another few days later there's still no new tracking events listed. I understand that orders can be marked as sent when the postage label is printed out and then it may be a day or so before the item actually hits the post office. But after a week i start to wonder if something has gone wrong with supplying my purchase. I contact the seller seeking information and 2 days later they reply asking me to confirm my postal address. I promptly reply and a day or two later the seller replies stating that they have the right address and would i mind waiting a few more days for delivery. (Meanwhile. according to tracking, the package still hasn't been processed)  2 more days pass and no delivery so i re contact the seller. Eventually they reply offering to re send the item which turns up more than 2 weeks after original purchase.

   This has happened to me several times and I'm starting to wonder if the item was ever in Australia in the first place. 

  To me it seems buyers are falsely listing items as local to get sales. Then stalling the process with buyers while they wait for the item to arrive from overseas before posting it on to the buyer.

   Is anyone else suspecting the same and does eBay allow this process? Or is it simply a legitimate occurrence in the postal system? 

[jellybirddesigns]

You can look to see where a seller is REGISTERED (click on their feedback), not just where the item is located. Chinese sellers are notorious for saying items are local when they are actually over seas.

It is also possible that the seller was acting as a drop shipper. In other words, they are located in Australia themselves, but when the order is placed, they create a specific order with the overseas seller who then sends it to you, so they just act as the middle man (so to speak).

When you got the package, was it an Australian parcel, or Chinese?

[digital*ghost]

Just in time fulfillment - eBay has gone on record as saying they are ok with this practice, and that it's fine to list the item location as Australia even if that's not where the item is at the time the buyer purchases, because it ultimately gets distributed from within Australia. 

This practice is a cross between dropshipping and pre-orders. Likely sales volume for an item or items is projected and a shipment is imported from the origin country (pretty much China exclusively), then once the shipment arrives, the individual items are dispatched from an Australian warehouse via the labels that were created for them soon after purchase. 

There's also UBI and other similar postage systems - this is a partnership between Australia Post and some Chinese shipping companies. It's similar to JITF, but multiple orders from multiple sellers will ship in bulk from China to Australia, and then have an Aus Post label for the domestic leg of the journey. 

Many sellers are up front about item locations and using these delivery systems, and they actually work really well (I use UBI systems all the time for non-urgent orders; as it's quick[er] & cheap[er] than regular mail services, and Aus Post can't complain because they're getting paid more for the service than they would if it was a "normal" China to Aus parcel), but unfortunately many sellers are using these systems to misrepresent item location, and eBay are pretty much condoning it. I'm not sure why - aside from the obvious, I mean.

I suspect they are subject to a lot of pressure from China in some ways - by which I mean if you think about how much eBay love the $$s they pull in from fees etc, then think about the fact that eBay acquiesced to pressure from Chinese sellers not to pay selling fees, one can only think they (as a market) have a significant amount of leverage. 

But yeah, where the seller is registered is generally a better indication of where the item is located than the listing, but there's Aus-registered sellers who do this, too - I've personally found the huge variety / tech stores to be the most common culprits, but it's mostly trial and error if the seller is registered in Aus. 

[daveprice]

Last time it happened the parcel arrived with an Australia post label.  I'm currently going through the same situation again so I'll check it out if it ever arrives. 

[daveprice]

Thanks for your reply.

It's the misrepresentation that bothers me. I buy from a localy registered seller to save time and it still takes over 2 weeks to get here.  I may aswel have ordered from China in the first place and saved myself a few dollars.

But if eBay condones it there's no use me complaining about.

[jellybirddesigns]

If the item is taking too long to get to you, open a case within the time frame, so that you are covered.

Don't communicate with sellers and let them dissuade you from opening cases by making false promises as some sellers are notorious for stringing buyers along until the time runs out.

[countessalmirena]

@daveprice, as already mentioned, take a look at where the seller is registered. (Click onto the seller's feedback percentage, which will take you to the Feedback profile page - and there it is stated in which country the seller is registered.)

If the seller is registered in China, you should assume that the item is almost certainly coming from China, although it may not be obvious to you even upon arrival. (Again, as mentioned, the final leg of delivery - i.e., domestic - is going to have that Australia Post label which can cloak a multitude of sins.)

I do not purchase from Chinese eBay sellers as a rule.

[offroad7400]

Item Location Misrepresentation has been going on since the dawn of time on eBay and is now the norm and this is how it works:

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Buying/SCAM-Chinese-sellers-misrepresenting-item-location-Equick/m-...

[daddykool-123]

I find the practice of drop shipping extremely distasteful and ethically corrupt.

For example, I bought some chair covers from the USA only to find they were made/shipped from China.

[jellybirddesigns]

@daddykool - virtually every single in our homes has been made in China. The only difference here is that the person has had the item sent to you directly, compared to getting the item themselves and then sending it with the American postal service.

Even if you had received them from the USA the label would show that the items were most likely made in China.

The only way to get genuine American made chair covers would be to source a supplier in the States and confirm that they are made there. They would probably cost an arm and a leg to buy and have shipped, but it's the only way to get around Chinese manufacturing.